Cultural Identity
The speaker advises parents to instill pride in their daughters regarding the cultural heritage behind their names. Parents giving their daughters difficult names suggests that such names do not align with the dominant culture of their society. Such names help preserve the unique attributes of their culture as they possess an intriguing story about who those daughters are and where they come from.
Demand for Respect
The speaker makes it clear that daughters with difficult names have an important claim to make regarding respect. For example, "names that command the full use of tongue" suggests such names should not be spoken halfheartedly as to dismiss the richness of their complexity. Furthermore, she does not want "to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right." In other words, she only wants to tolerate people who say her name correctly, which is a sign of understanding her worthiness.
Gender Identity
The speaker puts the focus on daughters instead of sons or both. This suggests her heightened awareness of the bigger struggles women and girls face in a patriarchal society. Advising parents to give their daughters difficult names can be interpreted as an act of gender empowerment for women and girls. Although such names are not common or pretty in the dominant culture, they possess beauty as well as command attention and respect, even from those with patriarchal power.
Rebellion
Parents giving their daughters difficult names is an act of rebellion. Such names are meant to challenge the status quo and authority. The speaker encourages parents to choose names that deviate from the norm and empower their daughters to take a stand against the conventional. These names symbolically put a dent in society and influence people to think differently about the world they belong to. In addition, they can be an interesting conversation starter that fuels deep dialogue about diversity.
